Kitty Empire talks to Stephen Witt about his eagerly awaited book charting the rise of the MP3 file, the online pirates who exploited it and the record industry that ignored its cultural impact until it was far too lateExtract: Going for a song: the hidden history of music piracy How Music Got Free is in essence the gripping tale of three men: Karlheinz Brandenburg, the German scientist whose lab cobbled together the MP3; Doug Morris, the old-school record company executive who presided over the rap boom and began the fight-back against piracy; and Bennie Lydell “Dell” Glover, the North Carolina CD pressing plant worker, whose light fingers and computer skills singlehandedly led to a haemorrhage of A-list rock and hip-hop releases – Eminem, Kanye West, Queens of the Stone Age, Björk – being freely available on the internet two weeks before release.The three men never met, but Witt reveals how their lives overlapped and irrevocably changed those of anyone who listens to music. Brandenburg’s genius lay in shrinking sound files down so that they could easily be sent over the internet, back when most files were huge and modems still dialled up. Owing to the bitter internecine rivalries within acoustic engineering, no one recognised the scope of Brandenburg’s technology; the inferior MP2 kept winning industry accolades and commercial applications. Universal executive Morris presided over an industry rich from the obscene profits generated by CD sales, until the secretive... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#cd sales
#balance sheets
Stephen King is publishing a new crime novel, Later, with Titan Books imprint Hard Case Crime in March 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 01:17:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#stephen king
#books imprint
Bonnier Books UK is launching a new music publishing list, with Pete Selby joining as publishing director. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-03 13:16:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#bonnier
#publishing imprint
Lana Del Rey is releasing her forthcoming poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, on Tuesday, July 28 in digital form. In case you prefer your celebrity poetry spoken aloud, though, she has also recorded an audio version of the book, which will be released on vinyl, CD,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-24 16:04:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#poetry collection
#digital form
#audio version
#audiobook
Hachette UK has created a new "Guide to Publishing toolkit" in partnership with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, to make careers in the industry more accessible to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 15:02:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#hachette uk
#disadvantaged backgrounds
#hachette
Music streaming service Deezer has partnered with the International Booker Prize to produce a soundtrack for each shortlisted book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-13 04:08:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#shortlisted book
Bonnier Books UK's Templar will publish Raising the Roof: The Colourful Characters of Classical Music by composer Jack Pepper. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-12 20:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#classical music
#bonnier
Top-visibility Authors Guild members join with Amazon Publishing and Penguin Random House in a suit alleging KISS is pirating a wide range of books. The post Grisham, Child, Amazon, PRH Headline Lawsuit of KISS Library for Piracy appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-07-08 14:52:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#piracy appeared
#kiss library
#wide range
#penguin random house
#amazon publishing
#authors guild
Former Mexican diplomat Jorge G. Castañeda warns that the U.S. is starting to crumble. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-07-03 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The new startup Koji wants you to be able to remix digital content without having to code. Is it the next evolutionary leap after TikTok? While most social platforms have found new ways to democratize content creation, TikTok represented a paradigm shift in how content can be repurposed.Read... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-06-30 09:00:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#social platforms
#paradigm shift
#digital content
By bringing moral exactitude to a story long silenced for American profit, “A Silent Fury” joins that most vital of canons, the literatures of witness. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-06-18 06:26:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Alexandra Petri’s new essay collection makes our current sociopolitical dumpster fire not just very funny but stingingly poignant. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-06-15 08:18:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#current administration
Husband and wife duo Polly Samson and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd have teamed up to work on the audiobook of Samson's novel A Theatre for Dreamers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-11 22:58:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pink floyd
#audiobook
When libraries around the US began closing their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Internet Archive (IA) responded by creating a “National Emergency Library,” a collection of 1.4 million books from its free e-book repository Open Library. Pu... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2020-06-01 19:33:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#doors due
#coronavirus pandemic
#e-book
#libraries
Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-cheif of ProPublica, and Aminda Marqués González, president, publisher and executive editor of the Miami Herald, have been Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2020-05-20 22:01:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#miami herald
#pulitzer prize
Michael Joseph is releasing a new book from Stephen Fry this October, Troy, retelling the story of the siege of Troy that is both mythical and grounded in history. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 04:12:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#michael joseph
Portrait of Ravi Shankar is a human life story, defined by familial failures, seething rivalries, physical frailty and relentless ambition. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-14 07:17:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The news publishing industry may be getting squeezed by the pandemic economy, but for Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg, it set itself up for failure long ago, by leaning too heavily on advertiser revenue. "When the United States became a national marketplace in the mid to... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2020-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digiday podcast
#revenue streams
#news publishing
W H Allen is to publish How Not to Be Wrong: The Art of Changing Your Mind by James O'Brien, with editorial director Jamie Joseph acquiring all rights directly from the author. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-04 12:59:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Stephen Page has said the pandemic is presenting a "very challenging time for businesses", as UK bookshops remain closed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-23 20:22:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#stephen page
#challenging time
A new collection contains stories that cover a surprising amount of emotional territory but can still be read in a sitting. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-20 07:41:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short fiction
#surprising amount